The
Navojoa Mayos were
the first team to qualify for the Mexican Pacific League playoff
semifinals
after bouncing first-half champion Hermosillo in five games, capping
the set
with a Friday win.The Mayos pitching
staff
was the story of this series, holding the Naranjeros to a miniscule
.153
batting average.Outfielder Cedric
Hunter contributed a .313 mark, including the lone homer for the
Orangemen, but
Hermosillo hitters were putty in the hands of Navojoa hurlers Hector
Velazquez,
Jaime Lugo and especially veteran knuckleballer Eddie Gamboa, who won
both his
starts and limited the Naranjeros to two unearned runs on five hits in
12.1
innings.Hermosillo was shut out twice
and held to one run once before being eliminated, 4-3, on Friday night
to send
home 13,195 disappointed fans at Estadio Sonora.Mexican
League MVP Jesse Castillo topped the
Mayos offense by going 7-of-18 (.389) with five RBIs, including two
ribbies in
a three-hit Game Five.Randy Arozarena
had four hits and scored twice in Friday's clincher.

While the
Mayos move on
in the hope of securing Navojoa's first LMP pennant since 1999-2000,
ironically
under current Hermosillo manager Lorenzo Bundy, the Naranjeros were the
first
team to exit the MexPac playoffs and face a long offseason with plenty
of
questions about what went wrong.Bundy's
job status after several winters with the team is in more doubt than
ever.

A
Philadelphia native
who lives in Tucson between seasons, Bundy won't have long to lick his
wounds.He was hired last week to replace
former MLB infielder Tim Johnson as manager of the Mexican League's
Puebla
Pericos for the 2018 season.Johnson
took over the defending champion Pericos from Von Hayes in early June
and led
the team to an unexpected return to the LMB championship series after
owner
Gerardo Benavides transferred most of the Parrots' roster to his other
Liga
team in Monclova.Bundy coached under
Don Mattingly in Miami last summer.

Defending
champion Mexicali
was stretched a little farther in their opening round series, requiring
six
games to eliminate Mazatlan.The Aguilas
punched their way to a resounding 10-1 win Sunday at home, banging out
20 hits
to the delight of the Estadio Gasmart crowd.The game was scoreless until the bottom of the fourth inning,
when the
Eagles plated three runs on four hits, including an RBI double by C.J.
Retherford, and never looked back.Chris
Roberson, Walter Ibara and Luis Juarez had three hits apiece while
Xorge Carrillo
belted a two-run homer in a four-run Mexicali sixth.Aguilas starter Sergio Mitre was the
beneficiary of his mates' hitting outburst and earned the win after
tossing six
frames of one-hit shutout ball.

Up until
Sunday's win,
C.J. Retherford had a week he'll tell his grandsons about by personally
delivering the game-winning hit in Mexicali's first three victories.The former White Sox minor league infielder
was irate about being left off the Aguilas roster for the Caribbean
Series last
winter under then-manager Roberto Vizcarra and has returned to the
postseason
with a vengeance.Retherford's RBI
double in the bottom of the ninth ended the Aguilas' 2-1 win in Game
One last
Monday, followed by a walkoff solo homer in the eleventh one night
later as the
borderites triumphed, 3-2.After one day
off and a Mazatlan win Thursday behind Brian Hernandez' 3-run blast,
Retherford
was at it again Friday, when his solo homer in the top of the ninth
accounted
for the game's lone run in the Aguilas' 1-0 win at Mazatlan as Mexicali
starter
Justin De Fratus and Venados' Dustin Crenshaw swapped zeros until
reliever Nick
Stuck gave up Retherford's dinger.

After
a sketchy first half under
Vizcarra, who was fired less than a year after leading the Aguilas to
last
winter's pennant, Mexicali has responded under Mere (who piloted
Tijuana to the
LMB title this summer) by running away with the second-half title.The Eagles are hoping for a second straight
trip to the Serie del Caribe and
Retherford wants to make sure he's not forgotten if they make it to
Guadalajara.Mazatlan is done for the
season after manager Daniel Fernandez' squad won just two first-round
games.Jalisco's win at Culiacan Sunday
night ensured both those teams will advance no matter who wins Game
Seven of
that series Monday.

In what
has turned out
to be the best of the MexPac's three opening-round playoff series, the
Culiacan
Tomateros have traded victories with the Jalisco Charros throughout the
first
six games of their set, including a Jalisco win Sunday night in
Culiacan to tie
things up at three games apiece and force a Game Seven on Monday at
Estadio
Tomateros.Regardless of who cops the
series, both teams will advance to the LMP semifinals because the club
that
comes up short will have won three games in a losing effort.That'll be enough to punch a ticket to the
semis as the first round's "lucky loser" by nudging out Mazatlan (two
wins) and Hermosillo (one win) for most wins in a series loss.

David
Reyes was joined
by four Jalisco relievers, including MLB free agent Sergio Romo, in
tossing a
combined three-hit 2-0 shutout Sunday as 15,148 onlookers watched in
Culiacan.Reyes tossed five innings of
hitless ball with four strikeouts before being replaced after 78
pitches with a
1-0 lead, courtesy of Japhet Amador's leadoff homer in the fourth (the
Mulege
Giant's fourth roundtripper of the series after failing to go deep in
his final
nine games of the regular season). Manuel Flores, who replaced Reyes,
lost the
no-hit bid by allowing singles to Rico Noel and Joey Meneses in the
sixth but
those were the only safeties the Tomateros would pick up all night.Jabari Blash, who was dealt from San Diego to
the Yankees in last month's trade that sent Chase Headley back to the
Padres,
hit a solo insurance homer for the Charros in the ninth as Romo worked
the last
two frames for his second save.

Culiacan
opened the
series last Monday with a 2-1 win in Guadalajara and the two combatants
have
gone back and forth since.If Game Seven
holds to form, the Tomateros would win the series but Mazatlan's loss
in
Mexicali Sunday takes the pressure off both squads.While there've been some strong performances
in this matchup of two longtime rivals (and hosts of the 2017 and 2018
Caribbean Series), Amador has stood out by socking homers in each of
the past
three contests.Three of his dingers in
the series have been solo shots as the Rakuten Golden Eagles DH has a
.333
average over six playoff contests.The
massive slugger will spend his third summer in Japan later this year.

Starters
have been announced
for Monday night's deciding game.Former
Yankees prospect Will Oliver (who's spent the past four years pitching
independent ball) will be on the hill for Jalisco after a no-decision
last
Thursday, when he allowed two runs on seven hits in 5.1 innings in a
3-2
loss.He went 1-4 with a 4.18 ERA in the
regular season.Salvador Valdez will be
handed the ball by Tomateros helmsman Benji Gil.Valdez
gave up two runs on four hits over six
innings in last Tuesday's 4-2 home loss to Jalisco.The Culiacan-born righty was 2-2 with a 2.83
ERA in eight starts for the Tomateros.